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The father-son owners of two Illinois-based tutoring companies, which did business with Dallas ISD in recent years, have been accused of bribing school officials in other districts, including San Antonio.

According to a federal indictment unsealed Monday, owners Johwar Soultanali and his son, Kabir Kassam, bribed school district officials with money, meals, Caribbean vacations and “services” at strip clubs. In return, school district officials in San Antonio, Corpus Christi and other states encouraged students to sign up with Babbage Net School and Brilliance Academy.

The indictment claims that the father and son bilked school districts out of $33 million.

Babbage Net School provided tutoring to Dallas ISD students who qualified for it under No Child Left Behind. According to state records, Babbage made $12.6 million in Texas in the 2009-10 school year. In Dallas, the company charged $70 an hour to tutor students and received at least $115,000 in recent years.

Dallas ISD is not mentioned in the indictment.

Court records state that Cedric Peterson, an assistant principal in San Antonio ISD, received Caribbean cruises from the owners. Another San Antonio employee, Brian Harris, received money. A Corpus Christi ISD employee is also included in the indictment. The three Texas school officials worked in their districts’ supplemental education services departments.

A 2010 study commissioned by the Texas Education Agency found that students who received tutoring with such companies did no better than students who didn’t get tutoring. However, the report found that Babbage was the only provider that showed higher reading scores for students.

Under No Child Left Behind, students from low-income families who attend a school that hasn’t met adequate yearly progress for at least one year can sign up with an SES tutor. Federal funds pay for the program.

The law prohibits school district employees from trying to encourage students to sign up with a particular SES provider.

In Dallas ISD, students could choose from dozens of tutoring companies. If Texas approved the vendor, DISD was required to allow the company to work in the district. For years, Dallas ISD called the tutoring a “racket” and tried to get an exemption from having to provide the service to students.

Texas received a waiver under NCLB last year, and education commissioner Michael Williams then decided not to require SES this school year.

** Name the district: “Widespread errors and missing paperwork have continued to plague XXXX Public Schools’ financial books despite repeat warnings from auditors. For two years, financial statements were in such disarray that examiners refused to vouch for their accuracy.” You’re a winner if you said Atlanta! (But we’ll also accept Dallas, Detroit and Miami-Dade as correct responses.)

** The Oak Cliff Chamber is hosting an “Education Summit” with Hinojosa, DCCCD Chancellor Wright Lassiter and Principal Kate Dailey of Bishop Dunne High School. But it’ll cost you $40 on the 29th.

** The SSN dustup pushes our editorial board closer to asking for Hinojosa’s resignation: He “should have on his desk today the resignations of any administrator culpable in this scam. And if he will not or cannot, he should do us all a favor and pink-slip himself.” Yikes.

**New study: “Students in schools that use Reading First, a program at the core of the No Child Left Behind law, scored no better on comprehension tests than students in similar schools that do not get the funding.”

And that NCLB was modeled after the Texas accountability system which was designed by Texans (Sandy Kress)? Question: Given that, why doesn’t the GOP also call for abolishing the state accountability system?

To see the state GOP now slap down NCLB, well that seems to be a striking reversal on what was hoped to be the President’s domestic policy legacy.

Some other interesting stuff in there regarding education which I will excerpt after the jump …Continue reading →